Rome and Roots

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I've been back from Rome now for five days, so I've had a chance to think about the experience.

For me it was all about my spiritual roots. I experienced my Benedictine roots as I sat in the room at Monte Cassino which was Benedict's cell; his biographer, Gregory the Great, tells of the visions that Benedict experienced as he prayed here in this very room. 

In Subiaco I visited the cave where the teenage Benedict lived when he first fled the decadence of Rome to become a hermit. I thought of Gregory's stories that center on the cave. 

I experienced my roots as a Catholic as I celebrated mass for our little group on a side altar in St. Peter's Basilica, very much aware of the presence of the universal church around the world, including my brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for their faith every day. 

I experienced my roots as a Christian when I visited the catacombs of San Callisto where I saw ancient mosaics and wall paintings using the same symbols we still use today. I had the same feeling of roots when visiting ancient churches and then climbing down into the excavations underneath to the look at the walls of the original church, some still containing murals from a few centuries after Christ.

I also sensed my rootedness in the classical Greco-Roman world by touring the ruins of the Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the Circus Maximus.


I'm not sure what the kids experienced as they went to these places with me, but I'm sure that they sensed that these were places that had shaped our western Christian world and our faith.

This visit to the places of my roots as a Benedictine, a Christian and a member of the Greco-Roman world was a beautiful gift for which I'll be grateful for a long time to come.